For You, Only
by ForeverisGone13
Summary: "Only for you, Alice…only for you…" Then everything faded into black, and the cat's last defiant thought faded with him. My own version of how it all ends.


Angsty one-shot, CheshxAlice. One of the many versions of Alice's death that I have come up with. BTW, one of my awesome friends drew this scene for me in one of her sketchbooks, thanks rainbow cupcake! **Btw, chesh is a sort of humanoid in this so it makes sense ;)**

**For You, Only**

The cat knew that something was off before Alice even entered that place. He followed her unseen, uncertain about this path. Why did he have the faintest feeling that something was about to go horribly wrong? He tried to suppress his gut feeling, blaming his over-protectiveness of the girl. She could take care of herself; he was just being too cautious. Right?

He watched as she entered the canyon-like arena, stone walls reaching into the sky. It was…quiet. Too quiet for the cat's liking. Even his sound-sensitive ears could barely pick up even the rush of air. Tiny particles of stone drifted into the vast space, defying gravity. Small and clear rivulets of water ran out of cracks in the dark stone, the trickling barely audible. As she stepped into the center of the vast place, the cat's hearing picked up a faint noise. A….rushing sound that was rapidly getting louder.

Looking around, he tried to find the source of the sound but found nothing. The cat was about to give a piece of advice, a helpful riddle, or a word of caution to the girl when he felt something holding him back. His limbs were frozen, and he could not move. It was almost like a hand was gripping-no, _wrapping_ around his spine. It didn't feel like a hand, no, not a hand at all. It was more like a t-

But his thought was left unfinished at the foul stench of rotting meat emanating from somewhere nearby. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up; why did it feel as if there was something else in this place with them? Abruptly, he felt a rumbling under his feet.

His golden eyes narrowed.

For a split second there was silence, and in that silence he heard a voice whisper into his head, a nauseating voice that was all too familiar.

"_Too slow, cat!"_

Too late he tried to yowl a warning before water broke through the stone under their feet, the cracks becoming larger and larger. The water level was rising incredibly fast, and he watched helplessly as Alice looked around in panic. She _hated _water.

Trying to break free of this thing that stunk of evil, he realized he could not vanish to her side. It was as if the confines of his being were attached to something, paralyzing his vanishing ability. With a sickening jolt he realized what he had felt wrapping around his spine:

A tentacle.

He yowled, making her head snap to face him. She seemed to take a step towards him, before she was swept off her feet and dragged under the water. As her head slipped under, he screamed his fury.

"Dammit, Alice wake u-" but he was cut off as water rushed into his lungs, his own being submerged in the depths. Thrashing, he felt himself released from his invisible bonds as he heard the voice again.

"_Save your precious Alice, Chesh…", _he heard the person chuckle darkly.

There was a pause.

"_That is, if you can…."_

The cat had never liked water, but life or death situations he had been in had required a little bit of swimming expertise. Looking around, he spotted the glimmer of the vorpal blade a ways in front of him. As he got closer, the fast moving water became clearer, and he could see his Alice.

She was floating, but this time, it did not intrigue him so. She was deathly pale, her lips parted in a silent scream, bubbles floating towards the surface. Chesh swam up a bit, considering the surface was close. But he was stopped, his head hitting something solid. Pushing his clawed hand against where the surface should have been, he instead felt solid glass.

He tried to break through but when he realized he couldn't he swore, swimming back to Alice. He reached for her, and she reached her small hand out towards him. But as he came within a foot of her, he felt his hand hit solid glass. No matter how much he tried to break it, it was impossible.

The water had stilled, and all that could be heard was their heart beats. Chesh could breath (he was a creature of Wonderland after all), but Alice…wasn't.

He tried to speak, and realized he could. Gritting his teeth, he came to the painful truth that it had been a trap from the start. He should have never let her go ahead, he shouldn't have ignored his instincts!

A feeble voice snapped him out of his thoughts, and his golden eyes were immediately drawn to Alice.

"Oh, Chesh….there you are. I can't really see anything, my vision…it's getting so dark…..it is so hard to breathe…I can barely speak….."

He stared at her helplessly, her frightened green eyes staring back into his as if saying "help me". But he couldn't, and he could only watch. It was all a cruel joke, a trap set up by no other than the Red Queen. He had recognized her voice in the arena, the invisible force stinking of her flesh.

Alice looked so vulnerable, more vulnerable than he had ever seen her. It had come, that day he had been dreading. The day had finally arrived; the day where he couldn't save her. But not like this, not so soon.

"Alice, I.."

She smiled, but it broke him that it was so forced, not like her usual care-free and sarcastic ones. "Don't talk, save your air. You're going to need it you mangy cat!" She laughed, but even that sounded choked. It was surprising, that he could hear her underwater, through glass even…but with a sharp twist of pain in his side he guessed that it was all part of the queen's sadistic tendency to enjoy other's suffering.

The Queen was probably even controlling Alice's air supply now, drawing out her slow death, keeping her alive. Just barely alive…just the thought of it was causing his vision to go red and boiling rage to shoot through his veins.

'_Why do you laugh, Alice? Why do you laugh, even though you know….?'_

He watched as her dark hair, flecked with red, floated around her face, and the random thought came to him of how much she resembled Ophelia, a character made by Shakespeare who Alice had once told him about.

'_No, NO you can't think like that! Ophelia drowned; Alice can't_!' He felt panic rising in his chest, but he had to remain calm. If he panicked, all would be lost.

"Now Alice, love, it will all be…alright." He saw her eyelids fluttering, her lips turning a pale blue. He growled in defiance, refusing to accept this. "No Alice, stay with me! You have to listen to me. You'll be fine, you just have to wake up. That means _now_, Alice."

If she didn't wake up now, her mind would truly die. Normally, Alice would die and come back….but in this case, if she lost consciousness here she would be vulnerable to the Red Queen. He knew she was watching, and the second Alice lost consciousness the Queen would take her. Alice had to wake up of her own free will, or else she would truly be killed by the Red Queen and her sanity lost to her forever. But if he told her that, she would just get stubborn and say, like she often did, that she could "take on that ninny with my hands tied behind my back and the vorpal blade between her teeth".

There was another thing he didn't want to tell her, less she refused to leave. Alice _could _wake up; but he couldn't. He may be able to breath for a long time, but eventually even that would fail with him. These glass barriers prevented him from vanishing and taking Alice with him, so he was truly trapped. He was confined to as far as the edges of her fragile mind.

She splayed her palm across the glass, matching it up to where Chesh's clawed one was. Her hands were so small…..it wasn't until then that Chesh realized how fragile she truly was. How much he would be losing if….no, he didn't want to think about that.

"Alice, leave." His voice was firm, and he prayed she'd listen.

She stared into his golden eyes unwaveringly, all feebleness gone. "No, Chesh. I won't leave. Because even if _you _think I'm that oblivious, I'm not. I know what the consequences are. I know what will happen if I die here." She sighed, her eyes becoming angry. "She's here isn't she? The Red Queen."

It still astounded him of how perceptive she was, and he half-heartedly cursed himself for thinking he could hide anything from her. "Yes, yes she is." No use lying now. He could only hope that she hadn't figured out that if she lived, he would still die.

"If I lose consciousness here, I am up for grabs and…" She paused, the effort of talking paining her"… the Queen can swoop down and get me whenever she pleases. But if I wake up now on my own accord, I will be safe and she can't get me in the real world and I will hold on to any sanity I have left. Well, sort of. If I am taken by the Red Queen, she can truly kill me and break my mind. I will probably still return to the real world, but I won't have any sanity left and I will just be a shell. I won't be Alice anymore. Am I correct, Chesh?"

He shut his eyes tightly, trying to fight back the pain of reality. He had forgotten how grown up she was, how easily she could figure out situations…..but what unnerved him the most was how calm she was, even when they both knew that this was probably it. The end of the line.

"Yes, love. You are correct…"

She nodded, absorbing this information way too calmly then she should have been. Well, after all, she _was _completely mad. A mad woman in every sense. But she was _his_ mad woman, and he wasn't ready to let go of her just yet.

"So wake up Alice. Return to your real world for a while, just get out. There is nothing you can do in this situation, and trust me, you don't want to be the plaything of a Queen. If you die, all will be lost and there is no going back. You know the consequences; they _will _come true."

She wouldn't look at him, instead watching a bubble slide upwards against the glass. Her green eyes flicked back to him, and he couldn't help notice the blue tinge that was spreading on her skin. Time was running out, so why didn't she wake up already?

"Again, Chesh, you underestimate my intelligence. Yes, I know the consequences that will be brought upon myself if I choose to not wake up. I know I will be fine if I just open my eyes….but will you, cat, be alright?"

Her eyes bored into his, as if daring him to lie to her. He was at a loss of words. There was nothing he could say, no lie that she would believe that would save her delicate existence. Groaning, he rested his forehead against the ice-cold glass.

"Alice, just _go. _There is nothing you can do here! I'll be just fine, just wake up already!"

He saw her bottom lip quiver ever so slightly, and he started when she pounded her fist against the glass. "No, no you won't be _just fine _Chesh! Don't….don't _lie _to me anymore."

A sob shook her voice, much to his surprise. "All you ever do is tell me riddles, messing with my head. I don't care if I'll be fine, what would I do without you? I know exactly what will happen if I leave! Don't be a hero, you st-stupid cat….." she broke out into impossible underwater sobs, and he was speechless as he watched her.

Only one with eyes as trained as his could spot the barely noticeable tears that mingled with the water. He saw her bite her lip, stubborn as always and trying to stop her sobs. Eventually they subsided, and her eyes again stared steadily back at him.

"I wouldn't want to live…without you, Not now, not ever. So don't try to be so noble. It doesn't suit you at all. But Chesh, before it ends, I have to tell you someth-" but she was cut off as her eyes widened, her hands snapping to her throat.

"Alice! Alice what's wrong!"

She writhed in the water, bursts of bubbled escaping from her lips. Looking at him, he could only bang against the glass, watching helplessly. "No Alice, no wake up while you still can! Please Alice, please I'm _begging _you!"

Suddenly her face relaxed and she stopped writhing, her eyes closing slowly. In the heartbreaking silence, her quiet voice drifted to his drooping ears. He saw a bitter smile grace her face, an expression that was sending him over the edge.

"Fancy that...the cat _does _have…a heart, after all…..thank you, Chesh. Turns out having no one to talk to but a mangy cat was truly…..lovely." And then, her eyes closed completely, the woman's last shaky breath released in a stream of bubbles that disappeared before they hit the glass surface.

Silence.

His heart stopped for a second, his golden eyes unblinking.

No.

"No no, _NO_!" He slammed his fist against the glass as hard as he could, sending vibrations through the still water.

A dark laugh that escalated into a cackle snapped him to his senses, and his snapped up, eyes blazing. His gaze locked on a dark figure behind Alice, a figure hidden in shadows but he knew immediately who it was. The stench of the dark and writhing mass that was the queen was unmistakable.

"Oh, Cat. You are _sickeningly _endearing when you're angry. I guess you…..just didn't love your little play thing enough, did you now? _Hmmmmm_?" He saw shadowy fingers trace Alice's cheek, and he snarled.

"Don't touch her you bitch!"

She smirked, her cold gaze calculating as her form became more apparent. "Or what, cat? What will you do? Purr at me, will you?" She laughed, a shrill and cruel sound that echoed through the vast deep.

She stopped laughing, her tentacle emerging from the depths. "She's all mine now, Chesh. Not yours, _mine. _She has always….been _mine," _the Queen crooned sickeningly. Her tentacles rose up, encircling Alice like a fragile doll.

"You _coward!_ She was never yours! Why? WHY! She would have fought you fair and square, and you _cheated_! You made the rules, you should have followed them! If you had Alice wouldn't be…"

She smirked. "What? Wouldn't be _dead_?" he flinched at the word, a flinch that did not go unnoticed by the Queen. "Yes, Chesh, Alice is dead dead _dead_! ," she sing-songed. Each and every repetition of that word inflected a lash of pain onto his heart, a festering wound that would scar and forever remain with him as long as he lived.

_Which is undoubtedly not much longer, if whatever higher power there is is merciful…_

"I did make the rules, silly cat, but that means I can bend and twist them however I want. As you said, their_ my _rules, after all. So the only one who cheated was _you_ cat."

His blood chilled. "What do you mean?"

She looked up from Alice's face, her cold smile widening. "Oh, you didn't realize it? You _cheated_, by telling her your true feelings. Remember? Just a day ago, you told her how you really felt. Of course the woman was too ignorant to see what you were really trying to say. But what else could be expected, your riddles confused her to no end. You see, the cat's not supposed to do that; say what he truly feels. He's supposed to remain a mystery, a shadow, a _bystander. _ You, my dear fellow, are restricted to the sidelines, you are only a guide. You broke the one rule you weren't supposed to, and now…you had to be punished for it."

He floated there, stock still and frozen with shock.

_What? _

"So, I punished you. It all makes sense now doesn't it? No more _riddles," _she chuckled, grinning. "She was always mine, Chesh, no one else's. Not even yours. You should have just kept your true thoughts to yourself, and maybe dear Alice here wouldn't have had to die."

The monster traced a shadowy finger along Alice's jaw line, handling Alice's corpse like she was a breakable doll. "You should have just known your place, cat. He should have, shouldn't he Alice," The Queen crooned, brushing the dead mad woman's cheekbone.

He was shaking, a rage building up inside him that he hadn't experience in a long time. "You killed… _my _Alice…..because of some worthless….rules? Like this was one big game to you?"

She paused, looking around in fake-innocence. "Yes. Yes, you could say that."

He roared, his pain and anger exploding. He slammed himself against a glass, and it finally shattered. But it was too late, as he watched the Queen start to disappear with his Alice, her eyes closed and body so still. It looked so _wrong;_ Alice should never be still. She shouldn't be dead, none of this should be happening!

"Alice! Give her back _monster!"_ His voice broke; hopelessness and utter despair not enough to fill the raw and gaping hole punctured through his being. It was as if a part of him- no, _all _ of him- had been ripped away, never to be whole again.

Her cold laugh faded into the background, and he watched helplessly as _his_ Alice sank into the deep. The last thing he saw was her pale hand, outstretched as if reaching out to him. Then he was left alone, with the cold and the silence.

He slid down the glass, not even bothering to keep himself afloat. He didn't even register it as he felt himself slide down onto soft sand. He sunk to his knees, staring unseeingly. He looked down at his hands, human hands. Human hands that would never again touch his dear Alice.

The shock wore off, and he felt a bitter laugh rise in his throat, one created from the pure irony.

"Heh…I finally admitted to myself that I could be human, that I could have feelings...when I told you I loved you, Alice. Too bad…you will never know now." His bitter laugh turned into silent sobs that racked his body, and he sighed as he laid back, his back hitting the sand softly.

"Only for you, Alice…only for you…" And with that his eyes closed, and he watched through slitted eyelids as the last of his air bubbled up through the blue.

'_I will find you Alice… I will…'_

Then everything faded into black, and his last defiant thought faded with him.


End file.
